THIS WEEKEND Two
new releases opened big as Pixar's 3D animated sequel Cars
2 and the raunchy Cameron Diaz comedy Bad
Teacher both excited their target audiences pumping in nearly
$100M worth of ticket sales at the North American box office.

Scoring its twelfth number one hit, Pixar's Cars
2 finished in first place by a mile with $66.1M during its opening
weekend, according to final studio
figures, making for the fourth biggest June debut ever behind Toy
Story 3 ($110.3M), Transformers: Revenge
of the Fallen ($109M), and Harry Potter
and the Prisoner of Azkaban ($93.7M). The Disney release raced
into 4,115 theaters - a new high for a Pixar toon - and averaged a stellar
$16,072. The strength of the Pixar brand and the Cars
franchise meant more to audiences than the flood of negative reviews from
critics who gave the animation studio what were by far its worst marks
ever.

Audiences continued to show their distrust of 3D as those screens contributed
just 40% of the gross. That follows opening weekend shares of 45% for Kung
Fu Panda 2 last month and 56% for Rio
in April despite the fact that Pixar has always been the leader of computer
animation. Among Pixar films, the Cars 2
opening was close to the $68.1M of 2009's Up
which was the first 3D offering from the studio but, as expected, well
below the launch of Toy Story 3 from
a year ago.

In the world of cartoons, Cars has
been one of the most successful brands when it comes to merchandising consistently
selling products long after the original film bowed to $60.1M in June 2006.
That free in-home advertising helped the sequel. Film critics may have
rejected Cars 2, but kids were truly
excited and they - and their parents - are the ones who spend at the box
office. And those customers liked the spy-themed sequel as the CinemaScore
grade was an A-. With a hefty budget of $200M, Cars
2 has a long road ahead of it to make back the production and
marketing costs. However since Pixar films usually reach about four times
their opening weekend tallies, this one could match or exceed the $244.1M
of its predecessor. Plus overseas grosses should get a major shot in the
arm thanks to a strong international market for 3D and the film's global
setting that takes the story to Tokyo, Paris, London, and the Italian Riviera.

Cameron Diaz enjoyed one of the best openings of her career with the
raunchy school comedy Bad Teacher which
powered well ahead of expectations to debut to $31.6M. The Sony release
averaged a terrific $10,365 from only 3,049 locations and played best to
adult women who have been underserved in recent weeks thanks to male-skewing
action films topping the charts all month leading into this weekend. Reviews
were mixed though more negative than positive, and audiences did not find
it all that enjoyable either with the CinemaScore grade being a disappointing
C+. But starpower from Diaz along with co-stars Jason Segel and Justin
Timberlake helped to drive in business as did an interesting story involving
a foul-mouthed and underachieving middle school teacher trying to score
herself a sugar daddy. The studio's marketing push was effective too.

Films that Diaz has anchored solo have generally fared poorly at the
box office while those with other famous co-stars have opened better but
still below Teacher. Last summer's
Knight & Day with Tom Cruise bowed
to $20.1M (with $27.4M over 5 days) while 2008's What
Happens in Vegas with Ashton Kutcher debuted to $20.2M. Her
overall top openings have come from the Shrek
and Charlie's Angels franchises which
were much more expensive productions compared to her new R-rated comedy
which reportedly cost only $20M. Exit polls showed that 63% of the crowd
was female and 57% was 25 and older. With nothing similar to Bad
Teacher opening over next weekend's Independence Day holiday
session, the studio hopes to keep attendance high for at least another
week so it can get on track to reach the $100M mark.

The big budget super hero pic Green Lantern
collapsed in its second weekend tumbling 66% to $18M giving the studio
a disappointing $89M in the first ten days. That was less than what past
June comic book films have done in the same amount of time including 2005's
Batman Begins ($103.2M), 2003's Hulk
($100.6M), 2007's Fantastic Four: Rise of the
Silver Surfer ($97.5M), and 2008's The
Incredible Hulk ($97.1M). The Marvel heroes all finished in
the $130-135M range while Christopher Nolan's Caped Crusader reboot had
good legs and topped $200M. Given the public's rejection of Green
Lantern, and Tuesday night's arrival of the newest Transformers
film, a lackluster final domestic take of around $120-125M may result.
Overseas results for Warner Bros. have not been too strong so far.

In its third weekend, the sci-fi thriller Super
8 collected $12M for fourth place. Off 44%, the $50M Paramount
release has taken in a solid $95.1M and may end its run with an impressive
$125-135M. Produced for one-fourth of the budget of Green
Lantern and backed by a less costly marketing campaign, Super
8 should end up with a larger domestic gross.

Fox grabbed the next two spots with its latest summer titles. The Jim
Carrey family comedy Mr. Popper's Penguins
held up moderately well in its second weekend despite new competition for
kids dropping 45% to $10.1M. With $39.3M in ten days, a $70M final seems
likely. The super hero pic X-Men: First Class
grossed $6.7M, down 44%, giving the studio $132.9M to date.

R-rated wedding comedies The Hangover Part
II and Bridesmaids kept
bringing in audiences with grosses of $5.6M and $5.3M, respectively. The
Warner Bros. sequel fell 45% and has banked $243.7M to date while Universal's
sleeper sensation eased by only 26% putting the remarkable total at $146.5M.
Both Bridesmaids and Super
8 have displayed good legs and will be very profitable proving
that good filmmaking can often trump lavish marketing at the box office.

Rounding out the top ten were two summer sequels aimed at broad audiences.
Disney's pricey 3D fourquel Pirates of the Caribbean:
On Stranger Tides slipped only 26% to $4.9M boosting the domestic
tally to $229.3M. Paramount's 3D toon Kung Fu Panda 2 fell 54% to an estimated
$4.2M bumping the sum to $153.1M. Woody Allen's modestly priced runaway
hit Midnight in Paris was a hair behind
and dipped by a slim 15% to $4.2M giving Sony Classics $28.7M to date.
A final gross topping $50M is not out of the question.

The top ten films grossed $164.6M which was up 7% from last year when
Toy Story 3 stayed in the top spot
with $59.3M in its second frame; but down 14% from 2009 when Transformers:
Revenge of the Fallen opened at number one with $109M.

Compared to projections, Cars 2
opened very close to my $65M forecast while Bad
Teacher powered well ahead of my $19M prediction.

Get earlier box office updates and analysis by following BoxOfficeGuru.com
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This column is updated three times each week:
Thursday
(upcoming weekend's summary), Sunday
(post-weekend analysis with estimates), and Monday
night (actuals). Opinions expressed in this column are those solely of
the author.